Fairtrade Fortnight 2010
in Colchester
[posted 050410]
The theme of this years Fairtrade Fortnight was The Big Swap. The
Fairtrade Town Group has been encouraging people to swap their usual purchases for fairly
traded brands. We held two events on this theme
.
1) The Mayor's Fairtrade Tea Party
On March 12th, the Mayor of Colchester, Cllr. Henry Spyvee, hosted a Big Tea Party
in the Mayoral Suite at Colchester Town Hall. Guests enjoyed Fairtrade tea, orange juice
and biscuits, which the Council kindly sponsored. Participants included pupils, staff and
parents from four junior schools (St. Andrew's Junior, Greenstead; Highwoods Primary; Broomgrove
Junior; and St. Thomas More RC), plus ten Councillors and members of the Fairtrade Town
Group a lively gathering of about 50 people ! In addition, we welcomed special guests
Winfred Gelli and Peter Jones from NGO Elikem, who are working in Ghanaian schools and
local communities to gain Fairtrade accreditation for 10 of their farm products.
Among the highlights of the event were:-
- A display of work on the Fairtrade theme produced by pupils from the participating
schools (see the accompanying photos below)
- A giant blow-up mug of tea, which was the focus for press photos of the mayor with
the children from the schools
- A presentation by the Mayor of certificates to each child to mark their attendance
at the event
- An exciting quiz to test how much participants knew about the production of tea
We have been encouraged by the very positive feedback following this event, and we were
equally pleased to get coverage in the local paper.
Photos taken by Don and Joan Manhire ©, members of the Fairtrade Campaign
Group:-



2) Ubuntu Fairtrade Cola promotion at Waitrose supermarket
(Ubuntu is an ancient Zulu expression, which signifies that everybody depends
on everyone else, and nobody is left wanting)
On March 27th, we organised a second Big Swap event at our local Waitrose
supermarket in conjunction with a relative newcomer to Fairtrade, Ubuntu based in London.
Why Waitrose ? It is at present the only major supermarket chain which stocks
Ubuntu Cola at several of its outlets. Ubuntu itself is a 100% Fairtrade company, which
guarantees to give 15% of its profits back to the sugar producers in Malawi and Zambia.
See the Ubuntu Cola website for further information
More than 150 customers sampled the Cola, and many of them liked the cane sugar flavour
.
although half thought it was sweeter and half less sweet than their normal cola
no
accounting for taste !
We were encouraged that several customers purchased more than one can of Ubuntu cola,
and Waitrose had to re-stock their shelves !
The Waitrose management were very supportive, and both the Campaign Group and Catherine
Brogan from Ubuntu thought this event was very successful.
Photos taken by David Lankshear ©, member of the Fairtrade Campaign Group:-


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